


Routine

by Mendeia



Series: Proximity to Balance [14]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-20 23:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendeia/pseuds/Mendeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One thing upon which Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei could always agree was the value of doing things in their proper order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Routine

**Author's Note:**

> Eep! I almost missed the weekend. I'm so sorry! And this one is short, so I'm doubly sorry.
> 
> On the other hand, there will be, at the end of this series, a very fun AU starring our Gundam team, so make sure you keep an eye out! My plan is to keep updating SOMETHING every weekend, so you shouldn't have too many gaps for a while!
> 
> Enjoy!

One thing upon which Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei could always agree was the value of doing things in their proper order. For all Duo's freewheeling personality and Quatre's tendency to tie things in knots and Trowa's casual fluidity, all of them had been trained as mechanics, soldiers, terrorists, infiltrators, and a variety of other such roles. The universal among them all was that there was always a checklist, a way in which to get a job done correctly.

This tended to leak elsewhere in their lives.

Just as Heero would never have launched in a mobile suit without a methodical check of its systems a few years prior, or Duo would not have infiltrated a base without proper preparation during the war (if he could help it), Trowa never prepared a meal without a step-by-step recipe before him, Quatre scheduled his days to within 10 minutes of precision, and Wufei carefully regulated all supplies from ammunition to toilet paper.

But it wasn't just the little things. The longer they lived and worked as a team, the more they began to use their habits to control, well, everything. It was comforting, an assurance that _they_ were still in control because they could impose order where none might be evident.

And so, after the first year of Preventers missions together, they settled into an unbreakable routine.

It didn't matter if the mission had included only one of them or all five. Often missions involved splitting up to accomplish separate goals, and they might not reunite until hours later at their safehouse or whichever dwelling of Quatre's they were using as a base. Until the moment each one had left Preventers or the local authorities or whatever served as the endpoint of the mission, until they had returned to their safe territory, they were still agents, and even if they met in the hallway or shared a ride home, no one let down their guard.

But once they were behind walls and doors deemed safe, once they were together, all five of them, then it changed.

First part of the routine – unloading the gear. Boots and jackets and uniforms, certainly, but also the arsenal each carried; guns, knives, explosives, all of it would be packed meticulously away in the cases they kept to store their supplies. This was done in silence, and no one moved on until everyone had unburdened themselves from the weight of the work.

Second part of the routine – status check. Wufei, no longer Zero Five, would question each of the others in turn about any injuries, lingering doubts, or something that bothered them from the mission. It was as much about physical well-being as emotional, and also about security. If someone had taken an injury, it would be tended. If someone had cause to suspect they might have been spotted, they laid out the specifics to look for potential security threats later. If someone didn't like the operation or the orders behind it in the light of what they had seen during the mission, they brought it up. Any action that needed to be taken was taken swiftly, from bandaging wounds to making private notes to look into the situation more closely. But that would come later.

Third part of the routine – returning to self. Beyond just taking showers and changing out of the sweat- and blood-stained clothing, this was about drawing a firm line between missions and life. They had such a tenuous grasp of living outside of being Gundam pilots, they needed a careful transition to make it feel real. Wufei, after washing and changing, always ran through a kata or two to recenter himself, and often the others would join him. Quatre would check his messages from WEI. Trowa would stretch his body as though warming up for a show. Heero would assess the safe house and ensure it was totally secure. And Duo prepared for the next phase.

Fourth part of the routine – replenish and refuel. As the others worked the kinks out of their psyches after a mission, Duo took it upon himself to cook. While they might share the chores before a mission, afterwards it was always Duo, and it was _always_ pancakes, after a tradition started in their earliest days together. He made stacks and stacks of them, more than any normal person could imagine they would want to eat. But the food had to last for a while, and it had to feed five young men with highly unusual metabolisms. When his cooking was done, everyone else would leave off what they had been doing and gather to eat together. And no one could laugh yet, but they might have relearned to smile around the table as they shared syrup and butter and strawberries.

Fifth part of the routine – true downtime. Stomachs full and bodies at last relaxing, the five would settle on the couches and chairs of wherever they were and engage in the most normal of activities – arguing over a vid to watch. Without discussion they avoided films that reminded them too much of war and missions, opting instead for historical dramas, comedies, classics, even the odd romance if they were in the mood. Everyone got one vote, and when a vid was decided they would lounge about and watch it, sometimes in silence, sometimes making snide commentary. Wired and energized, they could pass an entire night watching films together, one after the next, picking at the remaining pancakes for hours.

Sixth part of the routine – rest. It hadn't originally been planned, but it kept happening so they simply adjusted their assumptions to include it. No matter how tired, no one ever moved off to their separate beds after a mission. The togetherness, the assurance that they were safe and whole after their work was too important to let go. The same bond that had them share a living space when they all could have easily afforded their own places drew them together still. And so they simply packed extra blankets and pillows around the couches and chairs and, as each dropped off in the middle of a vid, made their bed where they sat. By dawn, there would be five slumbering young men, often tangled together on the couch or floor, safe because they were _together_.

When people asked them how they could see such violence as Preventers agents, how they handled it, all five just smiled and said they had "learned to cope." Because they had. They drew lines around their lives, put the missions in one box, life on the other side, and used each other and their own little rules as the guide in-between.


End file.
